UN Gazeti
Wednesday 06 February 2008
Issue No. 253
UN Observances
| 02 February 2008 |
International Mother Language Day |
UN IN KENYA
YOUTHS CONVERGE IN KENYA TO LAUNCH A PEACE CAMPAIGN
UN-HABITAT and UNICEF held a peace meeting at UN headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday in an effort to persuade young Kenyans to be ambassadors for peace in their troubled country. And the stories and tears flowed as young people recounted what happened as post-election violence ushered in a grim new year for the East African country.
The most vivid memory Aisha Abdulaziz remembers was of the well dressed man pleading for his life as an enraged mob attacked him with long ‘machete’ knives, clubs any other available weapon.
For more information, visit: http://www.unhabitat.org/
SG PAYS SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO UN KENYA STAFF
United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon on Friday applauded the UN staff at the United Nations headquarters in Africa for their courage and resilience in the face of adversity. He pledged the full support of UN headquarters.
"I realize that these are difficult times. I also realize that the working environment is far from normal," Mr. Ban told a packed staff meeting at the United Nations’ only headquarters in a developing country.
For more information, http://www.unhabitat.org
SG TO SEND TOP UN HUMANITARIAN OFFICIAL TO KENYA
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced plans to dispatch his top humanitarian official to Kenya, where more than 300,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to violence which has torn through the East African nation following last December’s disputed elections.
“With our partners, we have been able to meet the initial basic needs of displaced populations, totalling around 310,000 IDPs [internally displaced persons] spread over 192 sites in the western and central provinces,” Mr. Ban told reporters after briefing a closed meeting of the Security Council today on his recent visit to Africa.
For more information, http://www.un.org/news
TALKS TO END KENYA CRISIS RESUME AMID CONTINUING UNREST
Following a weekend of more killings and turmoil in various part of Kenya, efforts to resolve the post-election crisis resumed today under the leadership of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
More than 800 people have already lost their lives – and over a quarter of a million have been displaced – in intensifying ethnic clashes triggered by the aftermath of December elections in which Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner over opposition leader Raila Odinga.
For more information, http://www.un.org/news
UN IN AFRICA
CENTRAL AFRICAN REFUGEES MAY SUFFER AGAIN BECAUSE OF CHAD’S CRISIS
The top United Nations humanitarian official voiced grave concern today that about 50,000 Central African refugees who have been living in Chad will be uprooted again because of the widespread violence in the impoverished African nation.
Nearly 6,000 people have fled the Central African Republic (CAR) for southern Chad in the past two months alone, escaping violent clashes between Government forces and armed opposition groups and brutal attacks by bandits in the north of their homeland.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG OUTLINES PLAN FOR REDUCED UN PRESENCE IN SIERRA LEONE
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has presented detailed proposals for reducing the number of staff at the United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone (UNIOSIL), which is due to be replaced by a leaner integrated political office in September.
In a letter to the President of the Security Council, Mr. Ban proposed reducing the staff of UNIOSIL by 62 posts, or 20 per cent, by 31 March. These posts would comprise 15 international staff, 43 national staff and four UN volunteers.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN STEPS UP FOOD AID TO SOMALI REFUGEES
Somalis fleeing the violence in their country for Yemen will receive a food boost from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), it was announced today.
The agency has launched a $4.4 million appeal for 5,000 metric tons of food to feed 43,500 refugees, up from the 33,000 people it is currently assisting.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN MISSION PREPARES TO RELOCATE FROM ERITREA DUE TO FUEL RESTRICTIONS
The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) is moving to relocate as fuel stocks dwindle because of restrictions imposed by the Asmara Government, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.
“The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the critical crisis facing the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) as a result of the stoppage of diesel fuel supplies to the Mission by the Government of Eritrea since 1 December 2007,” a spokesperson for Mr. Ban said in a statement.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG CALLS FOR MORE RESOURCES FOR DARFUR PEACEKEEPING MISSION
With the crisis in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region continuing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today appealed for more troops and vital equipment to support the critically under-strength joint UN-African Union force (UNAMID) stem the violence.
Addressing the press after briefing the Security Council in closed session, Mr. Ban urged troop-contributing nations to hasten their preparations, saying “we need our forces in the theatre of operations as soon as possible.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
WORSENING SECURITY HAMPERING RELIEF EFFORT IN SOMALIA
Efforts to help Somalis who have been forced to flee their homes due to the violence engulfing their nation have never been as restricted as they are now, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today.
Roadblocks, shelling and attacks in the capital Mogadishu, along with rising threats against and targeting of aid workers, have severely limited the humanitarian community’s ability to operate, according to OCHA.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
VETERAN DIPLOMAT LAKHDAR BRAHIMI TO HEAD UN STAFF SECURITY REVIEW
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has chosen veteran diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi to chair an independent panel on the safety and security of United Nations staff worldwide, set up in the wake of the December 2007 Algiers bombing which claimed the lives of 17 of the Organization’s staff.
Mr. Brahimi “possesses vast experience and knowledge of UN operations,” the Secretary-General told reporters in New York today as he made the announcement. “I am quite sure that he will lead this independent panel with fairness and objectivity, to bring a very important recommendation for the safety and security of the UN staff.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AGENCIES BEGIN HANDING OUT RELIEF IN WAKE OF DEADLY QUAKE IN DR CONGO
United Nations humanitarian agencies have started distributing emergency relief supplies, including food, tents and surgical kits, to thousands of people living in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which was hit by a major earthquake yesterday.
At least 34 people are confirmed to have been killed and 300 others injured as a result of the quake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, which struck the province of South Kivu about 7:35 yesterday morning, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
CLIMATE CHANGE TO FIGURE IN BAN KI-MOON'S CHICAGO MEETINGS
Climate change will feature on the agenda of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's meetings in Chicago with local leaders, business executives, United Nations partners and high school students, officials said on the eve of his trip to the US city.
Ambassador Bill Luers, President of the UN Association of the United States, said the issue is likely to be discussed when Mr. Ban meets with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who has made environmental sustainability a key goal.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
JOINT UN APPEAL FOR MUMPS VACCINES AS EPIDEMIC STRIKES MOLDOVA
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched an appeal for $1.9 million to buy mumps vaccines for hundreds of thousands of Moldovans as an epidemic of the viral disease sweeps the small Eastern European country.
As many as 400,000 children and young people born between 1989 and 1994 are deemed to be at risk as they did not complete their full course of mumps vaccines at the time.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DSG SAYS DECENT WORK KEY TO POVERTY REDUCTION, SOCIAL INTEGRATION
United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro today underscored the vital role that employment and decent work play in promoting development.
“Decent work is not just an end in itself,” she said in her opening address to the Commission for Social Development (CSD) at UN Headquarters. “It is crucial for poverty eradication and social integration, the two other planks of social development.”
For more information please contact http://www.un.org/news
UN WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL TO HOLD SECOND HEARING IN SARAJEVO
The United Nations tribunal set up to try those responsible for the worst war crimes committed in the Balkans in the 1990s will travel to Sarajevo – a city synonymous with the conflict – on Friday for a four-day hearing in the trial of the former head of the Bosnian Muslim forces during the Balkan wars.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which is based in The Hague, has scheduled an evidentiary hearing in the trial of Rasim Delić after a request from prosecutors.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNFPA MARKS INTERNATIONAL DAY WITH CALL FOR ENDING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today called for greater efforts to end the harmful practice of female genital mutilation and protect the rights of women and girls worldwide.
“Intensified efforts are urgently needed to stop the practice in all its forms,” UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid stated in a message marking the International Day against Female Genital Mutilation.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG WARNS THAT WATER SHORTAGES ARE INCREASINGLY DRIVING CONFLICTS
Many of today’s conflicts around the world are being fuelled or exacerbated by water shortages and climate change is only making the situation worse, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly today.
Briefing an informal Assembly session on the crises in Kenya, Darfur and Chad, as well as his recent trip to Europe and Africa, Mr. Ban noted that he told the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month that “increasingly, fights are erupting over such basic human needs as water or arable land.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN-BACKED CONTAINER EXHIBIT SPOTLIGHTS PLIGHT OF SEX TRAFFICKING VICTIMS
A new exhibit using transport containers to illustrate the brutal experiences of women sold into the sex trade will be featured next week at a United Nations forum focusing on the global billion-dollar human trafficking industry.
According to UN estimates, about 2.5 million people from 127 countries have been trafficked to 137 countries for purposes such as forced labour, sexual exploitation, the removal of organs and body parts, forced marriages, child adoption and begging.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNESCO ADDS RUSSIAN, MEXICAN SITES TO GLOBAL NETWORK OF BIOSPHERE RESERVES
Marking the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, United Nations offices worldwide are holding a series of events this week, including concerts, exhibitions and the issuance of a special stamp, to raise awareness about the tragedy and to honour those that perished.
The annual Holocaust Remembrance Week kicked off on Monday at UN Headquarters in New York with the launch of a special postal stamp by the UN Postal Administration.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES NEED TO OVERHAUL EDUCATION SYSTEMS
A new report by the World Bank finds that countries in the Middle East and North Africa need to overhaul their education systems to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive world.
“The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa,” which provides a comprehensive economic analysis of the impact of education investments on the region, was released today in Amman, Jordan.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
MYANMAR: UN RIGHTS EXPERT DISMAYED OVER CONTINUED ARRESTS, DETENTIONS
Nearly five months after Myanmar’s forceful crackdown on peaceful protesters, political and human rights activists continue to be arrested, detained and sentenced to prison, an independent United Nations expert said today.
Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, also voiced concern about the well-being of those being detained.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
For more information on the United Nations and its activities, please visit the main U.N. website at www.un.org or the U.N. Kenya website at www.un-kenya.org
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